Trees and shrubs as sources of fodder in Australia

Experience with browse plants in Australia is briefly reviewed in terms of their forage value to animals, their economic value to the landholder and their ecological contribution to landscape stability. Of the cultivated species only two have achieved any degree of commercial acceptance (Leucaena leucocephala and Chamaecytisus palmensis). Both of these are of sufficiently high forage value to be used as the sole source of feed during seasonal periods of nutritional shortage. Both are also leguminous shrubs that establish readily from seed. It is suggested that a limitation in their present use is the reliance on stands of single species which leaves these grazing systems vulnerable to disease and insects. Grazing systems so far developed for high production and persistence of cultivated species involve short periods of intense grazing followed by long periods of recovery. Similar management may be necessary in the arid and semi-arid rangelands where palatable browse species are in decline

La variabilité de la pluviosité annuelle dans quelques régions arides du monde ; ses conséquences écologiques

Le degré d’aridité d’une région est généralement apprécié par la hauteur moyenne de ses précipitations annuelles ou par divers indices combinant celle-ci avec la température, l’évaporation ou l’évapotranspiration potentielle. Cette manière de faire paraît insuffisante car elle fait abstraction de l’important facteur d’aridité que constitue le degré de variabilité de la pluviosité. En effet il peut exister de très grandes différences de variabilité entre diverses régions climatiques ou écologi..

The Rangelands of the Sahel

This article is an attempt to review and synthesize the present state of knowledge on the Sahel rangelands in a concise way. Ecological conditions, land use practices, livestock numbers, and livestock production systems are briefly analysed. Range types, dynamics, production, development strategy, and outlook are also reviewed. The conclusion that emerges is that the Sahel should be kept as breeding ground and included in a livestock production stratification strategy which should also involve the higher potential zones further south in the Sudanian and Guinean ecological zones. Such a development stategy implies the improvement of the conditions of range utilization in the Sahel, in particular a better definition of basic resources ownership (range and water) as well as of the marketing and prices policies.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202

Rangeland production and annual rainfall relations in the Mediterranean Basin and in the African Sahelo-Sudanian zone

Correlations between average pasture production and average annual rainfall in the Mediterranean Basin and the African Sahelo - Sudanian Zone